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GREENSBORO, NC—Womble Bond Dickinson attorneys Claire Rauscher and Allen O’Rourke earned a complete acquittal for a former bank official charged with bank fraud.
The client, a former assistant vice president and account executive of a South Carolina bank, was charged, along with the bank’s president and another bank official, with 27 counts of bank fraud. Federal prosecutors argued that the officials devised an elaborate scheme to defraud the bank and misappropriate bank funds.
However, Rauscher and O’Rourke argued that their client had no knowledge of any conspiracy or wrongdoing, and simply was performing her job as requested by her employer.
“She and her fellow account executives shared a narrow but busy job to process the factoring lines of credit for a subset of these loans as approved by their supervisor and the bank,” Rauscher and O’rourke wrote in a written brief filed with the court. “There is plenty of evidence that [the client] and the other account executives performed this work as required and in good faith – not to falsify records or deceive the bank.”
On Jan. 29, the charges were dismissed by US District Court Judge William Osteen, Jr. after the close of the government’s evidence. The judge granted the Rule 29 motion meaning the court found insufficient evidence and entered a verdict of acquittal as a matter of law before the case was sent to the jury.
Paralegal Lisa Hare also played a key role in this trial victory.
Claire Rauscher has more than 25 years of white collar criminal defense experience, having tried numerous cases, negotiated favorable resolutions and obtained dismissals. She represents companies in grand jury investigations and related enforcement proceedings as well as witnesses and individual targets. In addition, Claire leads corporate internal investigations and provides compliance guidance in such areas as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), anti-trust, government contracts, qui tam and false claims matters.
Allen O’Rourke co-chairs the Privacy and Cybersecurity Team at Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP, and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US). He conducts cyber investigations and represents clients facing regulatory actions, consumer litigation, and business disputes arising out of cybersecurity incidents. Allen also handles data breach response, and he counsels clients concerning data privacy compliance, cybersecurity preparedness, and legal aspects of computer network defense. Prior to joining Womble, Allen was a cybercrime prosecutor who helped lead the Cyber Unit at the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, where he received two Special Achievement Awards for his work to combat cybercrime.
